vaddoc

Oh, I ve used Epoxy extensively so far! The problem with removing epoxy is than in the uncured state, usually there is not enough room in the jig to scrape it off and after it has cured, using power tools or heat is much more dangerous than in the real boat as easily the pieces can be destroyed or too much material to be taken out from the wrong places. This is why I wanted to try PVA, to make sanding easier and the process less messy. However, after all my efforts these last few days, my opinion is that using PVA to laminate wood is feasible but difficult. The opening time is not long enough and the glue is not rigid enough to counteract the pull of the wood. Much better to use epoxy Now, this morning I woke up with two keels, the epoxy one in the jig and the PVA whch I made the first time. I decided to sand the PVA keel smooth and I discovered that the pieces of paper I used to make sure the jig would not stick to the keel, had become embedded in between the laminates! So this keel goes also to the scrap pile. Last hope the epoxy version. I took it off the jig and it looks reasonable. I carefully chiselled the big pieces off and then sanded the keel smooth. It was much easier than I expected. I use Z poxy finishing resin thickened with talk powder and 120 grit 3M silicon carbide sand paper. I used my respirator, fired up my air filter and then vacuumed the fine dust as it is certainly not healthy to breath and also there is a small chance it may have some asbestos in (I ve been recently reading about asbestos). The final outcome is acceptable, the keel is quite straight and flat. It is 8 mm wide as intended but 10.5 mm high instead of 11 mm-I think it should be fine. I wanted to make the keel appear as a solid piece of wood as I will not be painting the boat but this is not possible with epoxy. I could glue a veneer on the sides of the keel or laminate it again with the strips vertical instead of horizontal. Or maybe try PVA once more, this time making sure the strips alternate in their direction of curve. Or maybe leave it as it is. Decisions-decisions...

Crance Iron? Love the rusty look. Gary, it is such a pleasure to follow your log.

The build continues at the same pace, on step forward and two backwards, as if to prove that indeed CAD accuracy is not really important or needed, considering the abysmal tolerances of creating the pieces by hand. I made the keel once using PVA, stacking the strips one on top of the other. The keel came out straight but the strips were not very well aligned sideways and a lot of sanding would be needed to make the sides smooth. Also, the keel is quite flexible despite being 8 x 11 mm and laminated from 6 strips. I then made another one, this time with the strips stacked sideways and compressed along both height and width. I had to remake the jig as every time it gets sacrificed. Clamping was very complex. The keel came out bend and also not flat.💥☠️! I could attempt to use the first keel but I thought I would try epoxy. It is very messy but has lots of open time and should produce a very rigid keel. So I made the jig for the third time, laminated the keel but this time clamped it in a different way. I left everything clamped but tried to clear as much epoxy as I could from the wood before it hardens. No idea how it will come out but I have a suspicion it will probably be S shaped. We ll know tomorrow morning. In the mean time, we visited Ely with the family and went on a short river cruise. The boat in the photo bellow is the most interesting boat I ve seen in British rivers. It has a long mast on a tabernacle (the chain plates are visible), external boards and a proper sea anchor but I doubt it would be very sea worthy, probably is very heavy as well. No idea what purpose it serves.

Thanks G.L.! So far more frustration than excitement but we ll get there! This looks like a nice book Allan, there was a copy on ebay for sale for £20 which seemed a good price-so I bought it. Regarding the era of the boat, the MNM dates it "end of 18th century". Indeed, these boats were swapping between carvel and clinker but I will build it clinker, simply because I want to make a proper lapstrake and mess about with plank shapes etc. Regarding the davit, there are two problems with your very nice drawing. First, the plans (in the first post of this log) show two lateral support poles which I am not certain where they should attach. The second is that I did not really intended this boat to have a keelson, just steam bend ribs (more likely they would be used instead of solid frames) and the floor supported by floor boards. As I said previously, I still have not found a source with info how these boats were actually built. Certainly though, some strong support would be needed for the pivot rod.

So, it has been one step forward, two backwards so far. My printer problems continue. Looking at my print outs, even just eyeballing the lines did not look straight. I checked and indeed, they were curved like a bow. That means that the jig I cut three days ago was wrong. A few hours worth of work gone in the scrap pile. After a lot of try and error I managed to a get a straight print out so I need to redo the jig However, I then decided to tackle the keel. The keel should be 8 mm wide, 11 mm in height and close to 60 cm in length. It has to be laminated from thinner strips, in this case 5 strips 2 mm thick and a strip 1 mm thick. I decided this time to use PVA instead of epoxy for three reasons, the mess the epoxy makes, the mixing and preparation needed and also because epoxy would increase the height of the keel quite a lot and would be visible-I intend to leave the boat unpainted. I used white PVA and not aliphatic, bevause it dries clear and not yellow and also for the slightly longer opening time. However the keel also needs to be dead straight. So I made a jig with pieces of timber perfectly aligned, 8 mm apart. Their face is covered with paper so that they wont stick to the laminated keel. The bottom strip has masking paper in the bottom surface for the exact same reason. It went well but not perfectly. I want the sides of the hull to be smooth and I am suspect they wont be. There should be some room for sanding, if however it does not come out right I ll need to redo it, this time with the keel laying on its side.

Indeed, somehow it feels nice knowing a boat is waiting patiently in my garage! Allan, I have the book and went through it. Somehow I did not register that the sailors were just hauling in the line just with bare hands. So this is sorted, no blocks or capstan. I still however have no source of info as to how the davit was attached and do not really know were else to look.

I saw that but it is not beefy enough and not attached in the right place to raise this massive panel. Also there are no air or oil lines going in, it looks more like a simple dumper. Maybe there is another mechanism hidden within the panel.

From pulp to ship-amazing!

Very nice Keith! Isn't that a latch on that panel that drops to hide the staircase? Another thing, that panel seems very heavy, how is it supposed to be lifted up?

Well, I once more thought of giving model making a break. The Deben took many years to complete and I thought I 'd lay low for a while. However, after I cleaned and tided up, the work benches looked empty and miserable... So I started making some wood dust! I first printed the outline of the boat with the frame positions for the building jig. I had lots of problems as my (windows) computers refused to print the CAD drawings in any reasonable quality. Finally I used the admiral's Macbook and this sorted the problem out. This boat is again going to be a big boy, the ruler is 50 cm long which means the sheer planks will be close to 80 cm long! It also looks quite a beamy boat. The plans are for 3 mm sheet but the only material I could find was hardboard which was awful. So I used some plywood I had handy, it is 3.6 mm but we should be fine. For cutting the plywood to size, I used the small Proxxon table saw with the carbide tip blade. It is certainly underpowered which is a good thing since this is the most dangerous tool I own. It cut however the plywood very easily and cleanly in all its 70 cm length. This is all I need really. For cutting the pattern I used my trusted cheap and cheerful (£66.99, bought new 6 years ago!) motosaw. No one seems to like it but I 've found it does absolutely everything I need. It also has some twisted blades so that it could be used sideways for infinite cut lengths. It cut the plywood very easily but then again I have cut very thick stuff with this saw. I finished the cuts but before I sand to size, I need to laminate the plywood for the frames. They are supposed to be 4 mm thick, laminated from 2 sheets, 1.5 and 2 mm, allowing 0.5 mm for the epoxy but they will likely end up a bit off. So much for CAD accuracy! I am not entirely sure how the jig will work, and also I do not have a clear idea how these old boats were actually put together. I ve done quite a bit of research in books, logs and the web but there is no real info or photos or drawings. Regarding the david, I found a picture that shows it was removable, it would be hooked on an axle, through a window cut to the floor boards and used to lift anchor cables. In this boat, there seem to be two side poles that provide lateral support, no idea where this end up. However, this means that a capstan would be needed which this boat does not have. Maybe blocks were used, maybe secured to the stem. A bit of a mystery this one. The images bellow are the only ones Google returned Next to laminate the plywood, laminate the keel, make the sternpost, the stem and the transom, cut the rabbet, bring all together on the jig...but this will take a very long time. No worries, as one of our friends here in MSW says: "The wood is patient" Regards Vaddoc

Thank you very much all for your kind words! I contacted George Whisstock and indeed he was very happy with the boat and may actually use some of the photos in his blog. I hope that you will join me for the new journey building the yawl. It may be just a "simple" boat (as the admiral said frowning), but I would like a project a bit shorter in duration and would like to make it as best as I can. I suspect it will turn out to be not that simple actually but more on the Yawl log. Regards Vaddoc

Dick, my boats are held together exclusively by tree nails( and a bit of epoxy). I use the screws to temporarily hold things together, then proggressively replace with treenails. I have used many thousands! I buy the screws by the thousand, either from aliexpress or ebay. There are two kinds, I only use the stainless steel ones as they are harder. The ordinary screws are mild steel and the head gets rounded off easily. Easy to tell between them, the stainless steel ones are non magnetic. At these scales I find them very useful. They need a pilot hall with 0.7 mm drill. Extremely strong hold of the wood

This is essentially planking of the hull! Maury, you can do anything you want as long as you can make it work. Planking is challenging but entirely feasible (and for me, fun). If you spend some time working on it, you ll figure it out.

This is a very interesting project. 1/16 looks a better scale and allows the use of wood nails. You could also use 1 mm screws, inexpensive and versatile.

Maybe you could also try maple some time. Similar colour but much more consistent, harder so it does not mark, holds an edge beautifully and bends really well. Especially in the US it should be inexpensive as well.

Bob, I am a bit confused, did you have to sand the hull for a second time? It seems that after you sanded off the orange skin, you got the settings right and your paint went on fine.

Nice progress Brian, nice touch adding the names of the girls! Could I ask, why have you chosen to use basswood?

Dear all Thank you so much for your comments and for sharing this journey with me. The first dot of digital ink was made in Jan 2016 so almost 5 years ago. I thought the project was done but thee was a last chapter to be written. It was a calm day with almost no wind and I decided to take teh boat out and take advantage of the sunlight to take some photos. All was going well but suddenly there was a strong gust of wind. The boat tipped over and I only just manage to grab it. It held up remarkably well but suffered some damage, a bent rail and a couple of bits of rigging destroyed. These bits were rather complex to make so it took two days to repair the damage. Then I furled the sails and took the final photos. These will be in the gallery shortly. It was great fun building this boat, I think I should contact Mr Whisstock, I wonder if I could be assigned a hull number...😉 Best wishes to all Vaddoc

Mark, I thought you d enjoy the video! I see now what you mean, indeed there must be a bit of keel especially aft. The only explanation seems to be that the body plan is to the outside of planks and that the keel has variable width, starting narrow at the bow, very wide midships and finishing very narrow at the stern. Despite being so narrow, a propeller shaft somehow needs to go through. The ribs will have to be half ribs slotted into the keel. At 20' and so beamy, this is actually not a small boat. What the plans do not give us is how high the keel is, essentially the rabbet as you said initially. Well, you certainly have some head scratching to do!

Mark, this is very unusual but maybe there was no keel? The plans really do not show a dead wood. Have a look at this you tube video bellow, there is just an apron with the garboard planks nailed on and absolutely no deadwood or keel. The apron seems to stand out a bit proud and that's it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMaClFVOf30 At 3:06 they prepare the apron to accept the planks 3:21 to 3:24, no keel whatsoever Then when they transport the boat, it sits very low on the ground. Vaddoc

Wow, all these images of these very beamy boats are amazing. Beam as long as the boat it self, I think the following pic shows this well 😁: Mark, is it easy to explain what your issue with the plans is?

Indeed Mark! An absolute joy to follow your builds and this is a lovely boat at a proper scale. Hope all is well. Vaddoc

Dear all The boat is finished! Everything is in place, the rigging done, the ropes neatly (pretty much) coiled. I put as much tension on the standing rigging as I dared but I suspect it could take a lot more-no need to push things though. I ve used rope made from the mara thread for the standing rigging which I hope will not stretch as cotton rope would-we will see. I also made a few fairleads for when the boat needs to dock. I need now to make some kind of base holder but I am unsure how to do it, I would like to make something very simple. Some photos and a short video showing the function of the highfield levers. I started work on the base, I made a simple very flimsy jig to obtain the shape of the hull. I ll check tomorrow if the shape is correct but it will certainly be a good starting point. I will post the final photos after the holding base is made. At that time I will lower the sails as the boat will be displayed (kind of) with furled sails. This will actually be a lot of work!

English Rebel, thank you! Bedford, I may take on your offer, especially if I actually build the yawl which will be equally large! I ll take a few pictures with the highfield levers in operation, a bit of measuring is needed but indeed they provide significant leverage and the backstay gets very slack, enough to accommodate the movement of the boom. Michael, size is relative and this island of ours is tiny. Ah, the vastness of the Americas! I think it will be a long time before I cross the Atlantic again. Vaddoc

Michael, Keith and Moab, your comments are much appreciated. I think we are almost there! I made the traveller and installed it. I then installed the main sail sheet and all the blocks and cleats. I then installed the backstays, immediately the rigging stiffened up. Up to now I used CA glue to secure the pin on the shackles. However, since I got the tap and die set, I actually found that threading the eyes of the shackles is a much cleaner method and actually makes the shackles removable. Both the standing and running rigging needs now to come down, re-done, the lines trimmed to length and coiled. The boat also needs a couple more cleats at the bow. However, it still feels there are not enough ropes...so lets install the lazy jacks! Now, this was a much more fiddly project than I thought. I used rope made from Chuck's Mara thread (for no particular reason really) and 2.5 mm sheaves. The eyes for the boom were made from 0.7 mm brass wire, soldered and threaded. It took a lot of work but came out fine. The first pic that follows is a mock up of how the lines would go so I could accurately measure the length of the ropes. Actually, most of the lines had to be prepared before installation. Next photo shows the lazyjacks finished, apologies though, the photo is pretty bad Now three tasks remain 1. Re-do all the rigging, cross the t's and dot the i's. 2. Make some kind of holding base and take photos with sails up and furled. 3. Figure out what to do with this massive model!